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Bicycle Theft

Keeping &
Recovering your Bike

See also the Austin Chronicle's article on bike theft.
However, note that contrary to what the article implies, Critical Mass
is still around, and has existed continuously since its local inception
in Oct. '93.

Keeping
your bike from getting stolen

Locks our readers recommend

I'm now using what I saw many people using in Amsterdam
last time I was there. I figure Holland is a good litmus test since
bike theft is a real problem there and defeating locks is practically a
national past-time. The lock is a 10mm hardened chain (available from
Cothron's etc.) and a nifty lock made by a company in Italy called
"Viro." I ordered their 4230 model from a store in Canada called Canaropa. The
enclosed design of the lock and lack of leverage all around makes it
very unlikely someone would go after it with any kind of saw, crowbar,
hammer, drill or bolt cutters.... or I guess a bic pen for that matter.

The caveat is: this solution is expensive (~$90) and
heavy (~6lbs). But for me, when I depend on my bike for daily
transportation, it isn't overkill. I haven't really noticed the extra
weight and I got a great deal on a used chain (the majority of the
cost).-- Travis Weller, Oct. 2004

I can't deal with carrying that much extra
weight around. I use a Specialized Hard Lock Wrapper (the thick
version) for daytime lockups and a Kryptonite New Yorker for overnight.
Since I almost always lock up my bike on the bike rack at home, I just
leave the New Yorker lock there, attached to the bike rack all the
time. The Hard Lock Wrapper comes with a plastic holder which allows
you to conveniently attach it to the frame just above the water bottle
holder and is extremely light weight (the core is Kevlar rather than
steel, which is actually harder to cut through using standard bolt
cutters). This lock - the Wrapper - also did fairly well in the
Bicycling magazine theft test, where they hired a former professional
bike thief to try and get through various bike locks using only tools
he could carry with him in a bicycle messenger bag. This guy was able
to get through most U-locks in 7-15 seconds. The HLW took him 37
seconds, and the only lock he was unable to defeat was the New Yorker. -- Patrick Goetz, Oct. 2004

1. Get a U-lock. The overwhelming majority of
stolen bikes
were locked with a cable or chain, or weren't locked at all. The
cheapest U-lock is better than the best chain. Locally, Home Depot
carries entry-level U-locks for around $14. Online, you can get U-locks
from Bike Nashbar
for $9. Higher quality locks are available at bike shops and sell for
$25-80. Remember, a bike being unlocked is a bigger factor in whether
it gets stolen than how expensive the bike is.

2. USE your U-lock. Of course this sounds like a
no-brainer, but I can't count how many people (myself included) who
have lost bikes that they left unlocked "just for a minute". I once had
a bike stolen from my front porch that was only out there for twenty
minutes after I got home. Lock your bike religiously. If you're at a
store and there's nothing to lock your bike to, at the very least lock
your bike to itself. (That is, lock the frame to a wheel.) That way,
someone can't ride off ON your bike (although they could still throw it
in the back of a truck and drive off with it).

3. Put the U-lock through the frame, not just through a
wheel. If you lock just a wheel, a thief will simply remove the
wheel and walk away with your bike frame. For best protection, put the
lock through BOTH the frame and the front wheel when locking your bike
to something.

4. Be careful about the ends of bike racks. Some bike
parking racks are constructed with simple nuts and bolts on the ends.
If you park your bike on the end of one of these racks, a thief could
disassemble the end of the bike rack with a wrench, and slide your bike
off it. By the same token, also check to make sure that the part of the
rack you're locking to is solid and not broken at the top or bottom.

5. Don't park on traffic signs overnight. A
determined
thief can take the sign off the top of the pole, and then slide your
bike over the pole.

6. Don't park your bike overnight in public if you can
avoid it.

7. If your bike is expensive and you have to leave
your
bike parked in public overnight or for a long time, consider
getting a second, less expensive "beater bike" for those times.
That way it'll be less likely to be stolen, and if it is, you won't be
quite so heartbroken. Note, though, that a poorly-locked cheap bike is
often a bigger target than a well-locked expensive bike. (The smallest
target is a well-locked cheap bike, of course.)

8. Paint over expensive brand names or scratch them off.
Simply adding stickers won't fool a thief into thinking your bike is
old or low quality (although it may make it easier to identify if it IS
stolen).

Making it easier to get
your bike back if it IS stolen

1. If your bike is expensive enough to have a serial
number, write it down now.

2. Whether your bike has its own serial number, add your
own numbers to it as well. Engrave your state ID number into two
places on the frame, such as under the bottom bracket and on the down
tube. You can get a cheap engraver at a hardware store. The reason
you're engraving into two places is because if a thief is smart enough
to try to file your numbers off, he might NOT be smart enough to think
that there could be a second set of numbers after he's found the first.

Some local and campus police departments will stamp your ID
number onto your bike for free, and put a registration sticker on the
down tube. Sure, the registration sticker would be easy for a thief to
remove, but the point is that when thieves even SEE the registration
sticker, they may avoid stealing your bike because they know that it's
registered and has your ID number stamped into it, so it'll be harder
to sell.

Note that some cyclists are wary about having their bikes
registered, because then if they get harassed by the police for any
reason, the police could ID them with the state ID # etched into their
bike.

3. Get free insurance with a U-lock. Most
U-locks that cost $30 or more come with a guarantee
that works like insurance: If your bike is locked properly and gets
stolen anyway, the lock company will pay you for the loss of your bike.

4. Register with the National Bike Registry.
This is a database run by a private company, but police nationwide use
it to try to find stolen bikes. Registration is just $10.
See BicycleLink.com.

4. Take a good picture of your bike for your files.

Recovering a Stolen Bike

1. Call the police and file a report. If your bike
didn't have your ID # on it, it's extremely unlikely that they're going
to find your bike. But if you're going to try to collect on a U-lock
maker's guarantee, they'll require that you filed a report with the
police. Also, you may be able to look through the police warehouse of
confiscated bikes to see if yours is among them.

2. If your bike was stolen from a college campus, call
the
campus police and file a report. Campus police are sometimes a lot
more actively involved in recovering stolen bikes than the local police.

3. Go to pawn shops in your area and let them know your
bike has been stolen. Give them the registration # and a copy of
the photo.

4. Notify local bike shops who buy used bikes.

5. If you got the insurance that came with your U-lock,
file a claim with the lock company.

6. Report the theft to the Stolen Bicycle Registry.
This is a database of stolen bikes maintained by an individual (not by
the police).

7. When buying a used bike, check the bottom bracket to
see
if it's registered, and if so, make sure it matches the ID of the
person trying to sell you the bike. If you suspect the bike may be
stolen, notify the police. Yeah, this doesn't help YOU get your stolen
bike back, but it could help someone ELSE. And what good is it going to
do for YOUR bike to be registered if nobody bothers to look for the
registration number when buying?

That's it, there ain't
no more

Everything that's listed above is all I can tell you about
bike theft and recovery. Don't bother letting me know about your stolen
bike, there's nothing I can do about it. If you came to this page
because your bike was stolen and you want to list it here, let me ask
you something: Did you ever come to this page before to look at the
list of other peoples' stolen bikes to see if you could help in
locating them? Didn't think so. So you'll see why it's unlikely that
anybody is going to browse this page to try to help find your
bike. Sorry.